"I'm back."
"Oh, you're back, Saitama. By the way, how did things go with Matt? Was it successful? Matt seemed pretty serious earlier." Hearing a voice, Skye poked her head out of the room. When she saw Saitama, a smile bloomed across her face, and she asked with a hint of concern.
"It was probably a success, I guess." Saitama thought it over.
"Probably? Why do you say that?"
"Matt said there'd be someone powerful there, but we didn't see anyone powerful at all. I got my hopes up for nothing." Saitama shook his head in disappointment.
Saitama's expectations weren't all that high. He just wanted to find a worthy opponent and have a good, exhilarating fight. Well, all right, maybe that was a little too much to ask. Actually, it really was too much to ask. For Saitama to have a truly satisfying fight, Thanos would probably have to show up in person—and it would have to be Thanos after collecting all Six Infinity Stones. So yes, Saitama's expectations were far, far too high.
"Isn't it better when the enemies aren't powerful? Do you really want things to be like they are in the movies, where the heroes only beat the villains because the villains talk too much or they get lucky and win by a hair? That's the movies. If that actually happened in real life, wouldn't you worry about getting killed by the villain instead?" Skye rolled her eyes. She thought Saitama was great in every way, but when it came to this, he always seemed to want to find someone powerful to fight.
"But it's so boring. Never mind. Let's have hot pot tonight! I went to the supermarket and bought discounted beef and hot pot seasoning. Beef hot pot!" Saitama jiggled the plastic bag in his hand, swallowing hard as he spoke.
Although he no longer had to worry about money and could easily afford good food, old habits were hard to break. So when he mentioned beef hot pot, he couldn't help drooling.
"Beef hot pot? What's it like? Is it good? To be honest, I've never had hot pot before." Skye was drawn in by the food, too.
"Huh? You've never had hot pot? That's so sad!" Saitama looked at Skye with pity. "I used to be really poor, but I still had hot pot once in a while. You've never even tried it?"
"What are you talking about? Hot pot does exist here in America, but it's pretty rare. Americans don't eat it very often. So just because I haven't tried it doesn't mean I can't afford it." Skye rolled her eyes and retorted irritably.
"Oh, I see. Then I'll let you try beef hot pot tonight. It'll be so good you'll want to swallow your tongue."
"All right. I'm looking forward to it."
In the kitchen, Saitama put the beef on the cutting board and casually picked up a cleaver. In the next instant, it became a flash of silver. In almost the blink of an eye, he had sliced up the huge piece of beef. Every slice was incredibly thin, about two millimeters thick, like it had come off an assembly line.
"Saitama, do you have to slice the beef so thin?" Skye was already used to Saitama's knife skills. She just thought the beef slices were too thin.
"Of course. Beef slices cook in hot pot with just a quick dip in the boiling broth, but they won't lose their toughness if they're not too thin. So two millimeters is just right," Saitama said with a serious, rather pleased expression.
"Really? The way you make it sound, I can hardly wait to try it."
They ate a full two pounds of beef at hot pot. It was the most beef Saitama had ever eaten in a hot pot meal. Compared to all that beef, they'd barely eaten any vegetables.
Patting his stomach, Saitama wore a blissful expression. "That hit the spot!"
"It really was delicious. I had no idea you could eat beef this way. How about we have hot pot again tomorrow?" Skye was leaning back on the sofa, her stomach round and full. She didn't feel like moving at all. But she found the way you ate hot pot so novel and irresistible.
"We can't, Skye."
"Why not?"
"Because the ingredients for the hot pot were only on sale today. They won't be discounted tomorrow." Saitama shook his head.
"..." Skye stared at Saitama, speechless.
While Saitama was enjoying hot pot, Kingpin had already sent Bullseye away. Bullseye needed treatment to reconnect his broken spine, and he planned to have it reinforced while he was at it. By the time Bullseye returned to New York, he would probably be even stronger than before.
"Translucent, I swear—I swear I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" Bullseye lay on a stretcher, seething inwardly.
"Achoo!" Saitama rubbed his nose. "I've been sneezing a lot lately. Could this be the start of a cold?"
"A cold? With your physique, do you really think you'd catch one that easily? I think someone might be cursing you behind your back." Skye laughed merrily.
"Cursing me?" Saitama rubbed his nose again. As soon as he lowered his hand, he let out another huge sneeze.
"Director Fury, here's the report on Translucent's activities. We've made a new discovery this time." Hill, her face as cold as ice, set a report down in front of Nick Fury, the one-eyed man.
"Oh? Have we identified Translucent?" A flicker of delight appeared in Nick Fury's eye.
"Not yet, but we've found some leads. Translucent has recently been working with Daredevil. We can reach Translucent through Daredevil."
"He's working with Daredevil? Give me Daredevil's file." Nick Fury asked Hill for Daredevil's information.
"Keep reading. The last section is about Daredevil."
Nick Fury looked through the report in his hands and soon found the information on Daredevil.
"Daredevil. Real name, Matthew Murdock. Male. He's blind?" Nick Fury looked up at Hill in surprise.
"Yes. Because he's blind, we've never looked into him, even though he's Daredevil."
"Mm, I understand. But even though he's blind, he must be no ordinary man to become Daredevil. Keep an eye on him."
"Yes. We've been monitoring him all along. But although he's blind, his hearing is excellent, so it's not easy to stay near him and watch him."
"Good hearing? Then put him on the—forget it. Keep things as they are. Our priority right now is Translucent."
"Yes, Director Fury."
"Daredevil's real name is Matthew Murdock. He's a lawyer in his daily life. After being exposed to radioactive waste, he lost his sight and became a blind vigilante. Through training, he reached the limits of human potential. The loss of his sight also gave him extraordinary hearing, smell, touch, taste, and a radar sense, allowing him to accurately judge the movement of objects and completely compensate for his visual impairment..."
The information Nick Fury had on Daredevil was extremely detailed. Daredevil himself might not even know as much about himself as this report did.
That was S.H.I.E.L.D. Even though Daredevil was blind, which made him much harder to monitor, they had still managed to gather all of his information.
P.S. I'm so unlucky. I lost my contract with Qidian and now have to mail another copy. The odds of this happening are really low, but it happened to me. Should I go buy a lottery ticket with luck like this?
But then again, if I won a few million—or even tens of millions—in the lottery, writing would really be nothing more than a hobby from then on.
Before you continue